Maya Angelou Recounts to Time Magazine How She Once Stopped an Intruder With Her Gun (VIDEO)

Famed poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou sat down for an interview with Time Magazine promoting her new autobiography Mom & Me & Mom. The issue of guns came up, as it was mentioned in her book, and Angelou stated her fondness for firearms as well as how she once stopped an intruder from entering her home with a handgun.

TIME: Your mother — she was your protector. She often carried a gun, she seemed to be very fond of guns. Did you inherit your mother’s fondness for guns?

MAYA ANGELOU: Well, I do like to have guns around, I don’t like to carry them. But I like — if somebody is going to come into my house and I have not put out the welcome mat, I want to stop them.

TIME: Have you ever fired a weapon?

ANGELOU: Of course!

TIME: At a person?

ANGELOU: I’ve fired it period, not at a person I hope!

I was in my house in North Carolina. It was fall. I heard someone walking on the leaves. And somebody actually turned the knob. So I said, “Stand four feet back because I’m going to shoot now!” Boom! Boom! The police came by and said, “Ms. Angelou, the shots came from inside the house.” I said, “Well, I don’t know how that happened.”